Stephen Tobolowsky: Interview

Interview by Clint Morris

Interview with actor Stephen Tobolowsky
Starring in movies Spaceballs, Groundhog Day.

Stephen Tobolowsky also starred as the Captain of the Guard in the film Spaceballs

Put up the streamers, ice the cake, chill some Heineken's and defrost the sausages, one of today's finest actors is having a birthday and anyone with a penchant for intriguing tales and captivating characters, won't want to miss out.

Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party is for all intents and purposes just 90 minutes of a highly recognisable actor talking about his life - but boy, like being given a mega-sized lolly bag at the end of a get-together, it's a real treat.

The idea to take Tobolowsky (who has appeared in such films as Basic Instinct, Groundhog Day, Bird on a Wire, Memento and more recently, Garfield) and plonk him in front of a lens was that of cinematographer turned filmmaker Robert Brinkmann.

"About fifteen years ago, around the birth of my first son, Robert Brinkman said, 'Hey, Stephen, if you have any time why don't we borrow a camera and I will shoot you in your living room telling stories, they're pretty entertaining.'

"I thought, 'Poor Robert has a lot of time on his hands. Sounds like a lot of work...but hey...some day my kid may want to see a real home movie of his dad, when he was young and had some energy.' Then we both promptly dropped the subject for a decade," explains the towering actor.

Between this time, Tobolowsky went off to make a name for himself as one of cinema's most versatile actors - but he says it's one character that people seem to remember him the most for - Ned, the exasperating businessman from Groundhog Day, who bumps into Bill Murray's Phil each and every morning.

It was quite an important role for him at the time, says Tobolowsky. "Certainly the most important role. My formula is that you have to be good in a good movie that people see, any other variation won't cut it unless you are really lucky. If you are good in a lousy movie, good in a good movie that no one sees.... etc."

Tobolowsky proceeds to go into a story to further amplify his latter point. "When I was younger and doing children's theatre for $280 a week we went to a school where there were race riots. Three kids had been killed because of the black/white ugliness.

"We entered the school under police escort. We performed our show. At the beginning of the show people were throwing things at us...but we kept going. By the end of the show the kids were laughing and singing. The riots stopped...it was one day I knew that my performance mattered," said Tobolowsky.

The actor says although he has been blessed, there are roles he doesn't always get that he would like to have scored. "There was a part on Broadway...wow still hurts to talk about it. I flew to New York on my own dime. I had no career. But there was this part. I knew the playwright. He told me the role was perfect for me. I worked on the audition like crazy...I went in and killed on the audition. It was great. I got congrats from a lot of people. I was told I would be called back for final auditions in three weeks. I said I would be there. It meant me buying another plane ticket but I believed in myself and the play," recalls Tobolowsky.

"I worked on the part for the next three weeks...then four weeks...then five...no phone call. Finally someone saw me with the script and asked what I was doing. I explained with some pride that I was going back to New York for a final call back on a Broadway show. She broke the news to me that the show had been in rehearsal for the last two weeks...ouch. I guess if I didn't run into that girl I would still be working on that audition!"

Tobolowsky has been friends with cinematographer Robert Brinkmann longer than Vegas has been inundated with Elvis impersonators. "I wrote a play that was an indie hit in L.A. called "Two Idiots in Hollywood". We got a film deal to shoot it for New World Pictures and Film Dallas. I hired Robert as my DP. We had a great time on the film.

"We then lived parallel non-competitive lives. Robert behind the camera...myself in front. We shared all of the laughs and frustrations this business produces. Robert was there for the birth of both of my children. He is one of those cool customers that is great in a crisis and has always been there in need."

And when Brinkmann needed Tobolowsky for their long-planned Birthday Party movie, he was ready and willing. But because the film was sans a script, says Tobolowsky, he had to have some intriguing words to wax lyrical with.

"National Public Radio (NPR) had asked me to read some of my stories live which forced me to write down 'The 100 Coolest People' and the story of Dick and my wife telling me she was pregnant. It was reading the stories live that demonstrated for me that an audience would find them amusing. However, there was no script for the movie.

"There was about three months of organisation...and thinking through the stories in the shower and in the car. Once the camera started rolling I knew it would be hard to fix any mistakes or do any take-twos that would cut.... so I just went for it," says Tobolowsky.

"We filmed for one long day starting in the morning at the ocean and finishing on my porch just like in the movie. We then shot the party for a second night with the same folk in the same clothes to get some reaction shots for editing and give us another shot of the candles and the birthday cake. I also told a different set of stories the second night."

Now that it's complete, Tobolowsky and director Brinkmann are trying to score peepers to watch the film, if not sell it in due course. "Selling an Indie film seems to require different strategies for different films. Some Indie films are merely derivative versions of their bigger studio brothers. I have seen Indie westerns, Indie gen-x dramas, Indie teen comedies. These seem to require the same things their big brothers require...stars. Some Indies are by design different. That is like ours.

"Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party requires its audience to listen rather than watch. This is very different. Film audiences have to sit and get used to not being stimulated by rapid editing and visual dynamics. It is in the ear and consequently the mind of the viewer."

Since the film was shot, Tobolowsky has appeared in some slightly more costly projects, including the anticipated Miss Congeniality 2 and some TV. "The last several months I have shooting 'Deadwood' for HBO. It is a western with the scope of Apocalypse Now. Gigantic.

"It is interesting for so many reasons - huge company of great actors including Ian McShane, Powers Boothe, Tim Olyphant, I hear Helen Mirren is coming on for a stint, Brad Dourif, and on and on...there is an entire town built out in the middle of nowhere and we need a security code to get on the private road that gets you there. Torches and candles light the night scenes, there are two or three DP's and directors working all the time and the headman is David Milch, creator of 'NYPD Blue'. It also features the first sex scene I have ever shot! I guess they know what sells," says Tobolowsky, before moving on to how much he enjoyed doing Miss Congeniality 2.

"Sandra Bullock is an amazing encounter. She is about five people rolled into one. She is a terrific actress who is at home with comedy or drama...the reason why? She thinks while she talks. She is a producer. She picks her own scripts and looks for a variety of things to invest in from big budget comedies to small family dramas that can only be described as Indie long shots. She has her own bus and crew that work for her. If she is shooting in San Francisco next week she heads off across country with her driver her assistants - all on the bus.

"She says she is able to keep more rested that way and it is more pleasant to travel...sort of in charge of your own destiny. I cannot forget to comment on her philanthropy. Sandra is not a media hound for her good works...she donated a million dollars to the tsunami victims with no hype...she is a special woman who just happens to be a star."

Not unlike Stephen Tobolowsky - an incontestable special star, who's rapt to hear that people are going away from his Birthday Party with a smile on their face. "It's certainly not meant to be for everyone, but I think the people that have seen it and liked it will remember it," Tobolowsky says.

"The reaction to the film has been very positive so far. It has been heartening. And not just from industry people. Film savvy people as well as teenagers as well as old ladies with their shopping bags have enjoyed the film."

And so they should, its headline act is as fascinating as a Scottish Fold cat wanting to take a bath.

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